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Friday, December 23, 2016

As I said this autumn, I think our town is at its most beautiful in the fall, but there is something about the first snowfall that is just so pretty, too. As with most New Englanders, I have a love-hate relationship with snow. I was eagerly awaiting it since everything was looking so barren and dreary, but by mid-January I'm going to ask my husband if we can move south of the Mason-Dixon line. Ideally, we would have a light dusting every night and wake up to a little powder sprinkled over our world every morning, but unfortunately I don't think such a climate exists anywhere.

I'm fond of this building downtown because we took some of our photos here on our wedding day:

I usually wander out this road on my way back home from the larger town nearby where we do most of our shopping and activities, because I turn onto it thinking it is our road and suddenly get disoriented halfway down it when I realize it's not. But it has some beautiful houses and amazing views!:

This is where both Jenni and I had our wedding receptions, across the street from the church where we both got married...it is the same church our parents were married in!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Merry Christmas! Thanks to all the craziness that comes with moving we were a little late on getting our Christmas cards done this year. But, hey, it's never too late for Christmas cards, right? We worked with our sponsor, Minted on these ones and I love them! I love the gold foil and the beautiful script and I especially LOVE the shape. I think what I am MOST excited about though, is the fact that this year I used their addressing system so our address is printed on the back of all the envelopes all of our friends' and family's addresses are printed on each envelope. It didn't take that long to load them all in and now they are saved in there for next year and the year after and the year after that! I am so excited about that! Now I just have to stuff the envelopes and put a stamp on them and that is it! And with Lillie and Lola's help I think we can knock that out in about 20 minutes. That sure beats the hours and hours and hours it used to take. I also love that you if you are running a little late like I am you can pick something like this card that isn't overtly Christmasy or even go with one of their New Year's options or so many of the other options they have to choose from! I really really love some of the New Year's ones!

I also love the pretty options for the text on the envelopes and being able to include photos on the back. We also included our new address on the front under our names which is great for when you move! (We blurred it out in these photos though for privacy reasons.)

We hope you all have a wonderful wonderful Christmas!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

*Cards were provided by Minted in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own. Affiliate links are used at no cost to you.SaveSave

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Today we are excited to share the progress we have made so far in our new formal living room! This was another room where the trim was already white (yay!) so the I only had to paint the walls in here! I pondered going with Kendall Charcoal which I've used in our last two homes and always loved but decided to go with something with a little bit more color to it and used Blue Note which Jamie used in her back hallway and I LOVED whenever I see it. I pulled the trigger and am so glad I did. I love how it looks in here!

As you can see from the before picture this room was already in great shape but it was so much fun to add some interest and depth to it.

Then we started thinking about drapery treatments. I had pondered using white but kept thinking it might be prettier to go with something with a little bit of color to it and saw these gorgeous Belgian Flax panels from Barn and Willow and knew that they would be perfect and we were so excited to partner with them on this project! I chose the Mist Gray color with a blackout lining. I originally had planned on putting a full set on each window but loved how our painting from Deann looked on that wall and I hated to move it and I loved the extra light that came in by just using one panel on each side so I decided to stick with this for now and use the other set in our family room (I'll share a couple of pictures of that at the end of the post). I may eventually move the artwork to another wall as this room continues to come together and if so I may add the second panel to each window but for now I am liking how this looks!

The quality of these draperies is wonderful and the fabric is beautiful! I love that they offer customized drapery panels! We were able to order ours in the absolute perfect length for our windows. They also offer free fabric swatches as well as a "try before you buy" program. We chose several different swatches before we ordered ours and I am so glad we did because it helped me feel so much more confident in going with the Mist Gray color because I had already seen the swatch in person! And guess what? Barn and Willow is offering 10% off to all of our readers. Just use the code: BW&DEARLILLIE when checking out on their website.

The other new addition was the new rug. We went with the this one from our sponsor RugsUSA in the ivory color and the 8 by 10 size and were so pleased with the colors and vintage look of it! It is even prettier in person and I think the colors go so well with the drapery panels and artwork! We absolutely LOVE it!

We already owned the two square pillows but we added these patterned lumbar ones from Motif Pillows. They are so beautiful and I love the modern touch they add to the space and the bold pattern! I love them so much that I've literally moved them around in three different rooms and want to use them everywhere! You should check out all of the amazing fabrics they carry and all of the pillow sized they have available! We also got these ones from them and are using them in another room and can't wait to share some pictures of them soon!

I am planning on switching out the beige surround on the fireplace but haven't decided with what yet. I love the soapstone my parents' used so am thinking about that. And then we will add two chairs to the other side of the fireplace and a piano to the wall opposite the fireplace (I've been hunting Craigslist for one nearby!) And I'd prefer to have a mirror or a different type of artwork in here instead of two paintings so I will probably switch one of them once I figure out the right piece for the other spot - I'd preferably like the switch out the one above the mantle. And then we need to add a couple of chairs to the room as well. And the ottoman has been moved back and forth between here and the family room several times already - I can't decide which spot it will stay and which spot I will look for another coffee table for. So, the room still has a little ways to go, but it's a start!

I don't have many pictures to share yet of the family room as we are still working on some projects in here, but wanted to share a couple of quick shots so you can see where we put our other drapery panels.

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Living Room:

Wall Color - Blue Note in Eggshell by Benjamin Moore

Trim Color - Existing (it has a slightly greenish color to it so will get a coat of Simply White to match what we are doing in the rest of the house when I get a chance)

Doors - Existing but will be painted Mopboard Black when I get a chance

We hope you all have an amazing Tuesday!!!! I can't believe that Christmas is almost here!

*The drapery panels, rug and lumbar pillows were provided in exchange for sharing them on our blog. We chose all of the items and all thoughts and opinions are our own. Affiliate links are used in this post at no cost to you.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Today I am going to share our new master bedroom. This room was one of the easiest projects in the house because it pretty much just involved me painting the walls (they were a bright Carolina blue color) and then taking down a ceiling fan that was oddly placed over to the right side of the room. I originally had planned on painting the walls a dark color in here like we had in our townhouse several years ago but ended up going with White Dove because I liked that by sticking with a basic white backdrop I can mix up the look in here quite a bit with just some pillow and throw changes. For now we used pillows, throws and the rug from the study in our last house but I think come spring we may change it up with some lighter colored pillows and by switching out the rug.

One of the things I love most about our new home is the master bedroom. It has four windows that let so much natural light in. We used some Ikea Ritva Panels in this room that we already owned (we left all of our window treatments at our old house, but had a few extras that I was able to use in here) and got some new curtain rods at Target.

We did some dresser switching around when we moved. We put this dresser that had been in Lillie's room in our room because it fit perfectly between these windows. (And then I painted our nightstands white and those moved into her room for storage for her). This chair in the corner was also in Lillie's room in our last house. We moved it in here for now. Above our dresser we added this vintage gold mirror which Jon gave to me as a gift when we bought our very first home almost ten years ago!

Although pretty much everything in this room we already owned we did add some new nightstands from our sponsor, Joss and Main, which we LOVE!!!! We love the height on them and the traditional style plus it's always nice adding some extra storage. I also love having slightly oversized nightstands because they add such a great amount of space to add lamps, jewelry boxes and anything else that needs to be set on them at night like my phone, glasses, book, etc.

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These lamps were in our guest room at our last house but I think are going to end up in here! I love how they look on the new nightstands. We found them at HomeGoods a year or so ago but you can find similar ones here. I tried them in Lillie's room too and they looked pretty in there as well but I am going to try to find something a little more whimsical for her room.

Over on the other side of the room between the closet door and master bathroom door we added our mirrored dresser and some artwork that we got from Arhuas a couple of years ago.

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Right now we have the ottoman from our den in here just because it matches and is nice having somewhere to set clean laundry on and clothes set out for the next day however it won't be staying here. Even though we have plenty of room to get by it, visually it is much too deep for the space and looks funny. For now though it's functional having it in here but once I find something that looks better it will get moved out and either be recovered in a different fabric and go in our family room or possibly stay how it is with the chocolate colored fabric and go in our bonus room/playroom. I haven't decided on that yet. Kind of depends on how a couple of other spaces start coming together. We shall see. But for now it is in here even though size-wise it looks a little funny. Ha!

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Master Bedroom Source List:

Wall Color - White Dove by Benjamin Moore in Eggshell
Trim - Existing but will eventually be painted with Simply White by Benjamin Moore in Semi-gloss

Mirrored Chest - Haynes Furniture 7 or so years ago (can be found here)Grand Plaza Artwork - Arhaus a coupe of years agoBoxwood Wreath - Can be found hereCandlestick Holders - Balsam Hill several years ago